A Profile of Jim H. Grant, Sr.
Jim Grant grew up in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, the home of MACK Truck where he saw the broad expanse of that company with the production of its trucks. During his youth he saw many E, A, and B Model trucks being tested on area highways. During his service in the Peace Corps in Iran during the mid-1960, he saw many MACK’s hauling freight across arid desert country highways. In the Peace Corps, Jim worked taught and worked on farm equipment repair and steel fabrication. His training certification with the Cummins NH Series Diesel Engine was utilized in diesel engine repair. While growing up on a farm gave Jim broad opportunities to learn how to use agriculture equipment.
During Jim’s college years at Kent State University in the late-1960’s, he worked on three internship type assignments with Roadway Express in Akron at their Archwood terminal. His three assignments where; freight handling, claims administration and fleet management. Jim found that fleet management was the most challenging and enjoyable. The Akron fleet had several hundred tractors and it was role of the fleet management team to keep the fleet of trucks and trailers in top running condition, safe operation, and at a manageable cost of operation.
After graduating from Kent State in 1969, Jim joined the Warner & Swasey Co. in Cleveland as a special apprentice being trained for a machine tools sales position. From that program Jim was assigned to management positions in manufacturing and personnel. He came to the Gradall Division in 1976 to work in personnel. In 1979, Jim left Gradall and moved to Springfield, Illinois to work for the Fiat-Allis tractor and scrapper plant. He was there for well over a year and was later asked by Warner & Swasey Co. to return to the Gradall Division to head-up the personnel function.
During the crushing economic recession period of 1982 – 1983, Jim took on the assignment of manager of parts sales and technical publications for the Gradall Division. Under Jim’s management and with the work of his staff they doubled the revenue of the Gradall Excavator parts and attachment business. And they developed the parts and attachment business for the new Gradall Material Handler product line. Through the work of Jim and his staff they introduced business and access systems for their customers. These systems included; on-line parts ordering, on-line parts manuals and on-line warranty. As a professional in product support, Jim was an active member of the parts and service council of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he served both as the chairman and as a member of the executive committee. During the last five years of Jim’s association with Gradall he was the director of product support for Gradall Industries. Jim retired in 2005. During his retirement he was done product support consulting work, substitute teaching and authored four books about the history of the Gradall Company and Warner & Swasey Company.
Since his retirement from Gradall Industries, Inc. Jim Grant has authored and self- published three books; The Gradall A Story of American Ingenuity, published in 2010, LOAD HANDLER – The Gradall LOED Materials Handler, published in 2012, and Warner & Swasey Construction Equipment, published in 2016. During his thirty-five years with the Warner & Swasey Company and Gradall Industries, Jim held executive positions responsible for human resources and product support. As a professional in product support, Jim was an active member of the parts and service council of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he served both as the chairman and as a member of the executive committee.
Following his service with the Peace Corps in Iran in 1966, he graduated from Kent State University in 1969 with a degree in management. Jim attended the MBA program of the Nance College of Business, Cleveland State University.
